Mother Calls for MAID Overhaul After Alleging Her 26-Year-Old Son Was Wrongfully Euthanized

Ontario resident Margaret Marsilla says her 26-year-old son Kiano Vafaeian was given medical assistance in dying (MAID) in B.C. even though he didn’t suffer from a terminal or unbearably painful medical condition and was denied euthanasia in Ontario.

MAID currently permits doctor-assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses or other incurable medical conditions. Under Track 2, eligibility also extends to individuals with chronic illness or disability who are experiencing “unbearable physical or mental suffering” but whose death is not “reasonably foreseeable.” An expansion to allow MAID for those whose sole underlying condition is mental illness is currently paused until 2027.

“I strongly feel that if he wasn’t approved for MAID, he would have still been around,” Marsilla said, adding that her son was an intelligent and kind young man whose loss is deeply felt by his whole family.

Marsilla, who took part in the press conference with Joseph Caprara, her husband and Vafaeian’s step-father, said they remained very close to Vafaeian into adulthood, providing financial, housing, and medical support and helping him try to stabilize his life as he faced physical and mental health challenges.

Marsilla noted that her son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in early childhood and later went on to lose sight in one eye and diminished sight in the other eye.

She said Vafaeian later went on to become addicted to cannabis, psilocybin, and other drugs in an attempt to treat his discomfort and mental illness. After being repeatedly turned down for MAID in Ontario between 2022 and 2024, he was given a link in an email from Health Canada to find other provinces where he could seek it, she added.

Although Canada’s MAID rules are set at the federal level, provinces have the authority to set different rules on how to assess eligibility, determine wait times, and interpret the federal regulations.

Mental Illness

Marsilla said her son suffered from mental illness for years. She attributed his “obsession” with MAID to his mental health condition and said she does not think medical professionals sufficiently encouraged or compelled him to obtain appropriate psychological treatment.

After digging through her son’s medical records, she found “no sign” of any doctor recommending he undergo specific treatment, Marsilla said.

“They did mention [cluster B] personality traits, the mood disorders, the ADHD, and all of that. They never mentioned treatments, they never mentioned medication, none of that,” she added. “Nowhere does it state that he should be undergoing severe treatment.”

Marsilla said her son’s vision loss related to diabetes was worsened because he did not complete some recommended eye surgeries, contributing to avoidable deterioration in his vision.

She said her last interaction with her son occurred last month just prior to his death on Dec. 30, 2025. Marsilla said she was in contact with him by phone on Dec. 18 ahead of a planned date for MAID on Dec. 19. 

The procedure did not take place as scheduled and Marsilla said she believed safeguards would prevent Vafaeian from receiving MAID in British Columbia, because he had already been barred from obtaining it in Ontario. She did not learn otherwise until being informed in early January that he’d been euthanized on Dec. 30 at a funeral home in Vancouver by Dr. Ellen Wiebe. She said she believes he was given the shot under Track 2 of MAID.

MAID applications are self-referred and applicants do not have to inform their family members or caregivers.

Wiebe told The Epoch Times she cannot comment on an individual case but that she has only approved MAID for people with “unbearable” physical suffering.

“I and my colleagues have only ever approved people who have grievous and irremediable medical conditions (not psychiatric) who are suffering unbearably,” she wrote in a Jan. 12 email.

Wiebe is an abortion provider who as of 2022 had taken part in at least 430 MAID euthanizations, according to a testimony she gave before MPs. She had a lawsuit filed against her in December 2024 for allegedly providing MAID to a 52-year-old man out on a day pass from a psychiatric facility in 2022. Charges haven’t been proven in court.

Wiebe’s Willow Clinic also faced an injunction from a B.C. judge and had to halt the scheduled euthanization of an Alberta woman the day before it was to be performed. The judge’s order prevented any doctor from carrying out the procedure.

The B.C. Provincial Health Services Authority, which administers specialized services including frameworks for end-of-life-care, did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times by time of publication.

Dying With Dignity Canada CEO Helen Long wrote in a Jan. 12 email to The Epoch Times that while the organization cannot comment on individual cases, “it is important to be clear that medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness as the sole underlying condition is not legal in Canada.”

Long added that her organization empathizes with all who have lost somebody they care about to assisted death.

“We are empathetic to the suffering of anyone who has lost a loved one to an assisted death,” Long wrote.

Amanda Achtman, an advocate against euthanasia and founder of Dying to Meet You, says Vafaeian’s case really shows “the powerlessness that family members” feel when it comes to MAID.

“Family members are at a loss for how to intervene and save the lives of their loved ones,” she said in an interview.

She also noted that although MAID isn’t available yet to those whose only condition is mental illness, “what we’re seeing is people with mental illness are already being euthanized as long as they have a compounding factor of physical illness, a disability.”

Response

Marsilla and Caprara said they are considering joining class action lawsuits but are currently focused on speaking out about what they believe is a lack of proper safeguards in the MAID system, including inconsistency between provinces in terms of who is eligible for MAID.

They also dispute the claim that their son suffered from severe peripheral neuropathy, which was listed on his death certificate. Marsilla, who works in health care, said she has patients with the condition and does not believe her son experienced the condition, which includes severe pain and inability to perform basic physical tasks and be mobile.

Marsilla and Caprara said they are also focused on supporting the passage of Bill C-218, a private member’s bill tabled by Conservative MP Tamara Jansen that would block MAID for anyone where mental illness is the sole underlying condition.

“That bill has to go through,” Marsilla said during the virtual press conference attended by a number of individuals including B.C. Conservative MLA Anna Kindy, who serves as her party’s health critic in the legislature.

Sharing news of Vafaeian’s death, American journalist and author Megan Basham said that she had an ongoing correspondence with Vafaeian who “was in no pain” but was “understandably, very, very angry about losing his sight. It had cast him into a depression.” 

“The Canadian government told him to indulge that anger and depression,” Basham wrote. “They told him it was right and good for him to want to die over a health challenge he could not change but could certainly have learned to manage over time. I am sick and furious at the loss of this young man.”

While Marsilla and Caprara said they agree that Vafaeian was an adult who had the right to make his own choices, they believe he was coached into receiving MAID and was making positive future plans in late 2025 when he appeared to switch track after being approved for MAID in B.C.

“We’re exposing this so no other families are destroyed like this,” Marsilla said. “The general public believes that MAID is for those who are dying, period, and that’s not true.”

Sonia Rouleau contributed to this report.